Above: Nevis (CJ Photo)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Nevis is projecting a 38 percent increase in cruise ship calls, according to Tourism Minister Mark Brantley.

The Minister said the island received 34 cruise ship calls, with 47 cruise ship calls expected for this year.

That won’t mean an equivalent increase in passenger numbers, however, Brantley said, with the departure of the Azamara from the region.

“It will not be sailing the Caribbean this year and so that passenger ship would carry 694 people has been taken out,” he said.

“We have replaced them with more calls, a number of calls but overall, we expect only to see a modest increase in actual passenger arrivals of 2.52 percent,’ Brantley said. “We have a new ship “The Pearl Mist” which I’m told, is a Canadian vessel and that will be coming for the 1st time.”

Brantley said the island was working on increasing the number of “high-end” cruise calls to Nevis.

“We’re working assiduously through the NTA and the Ministry is really to increase the number of cruise ship calls but to do so incrementally,” he said. “Let me just say…our policy has been and continues to be that we are not primarily a cruise ship destination. Nevis is a niche luxury market [and] that is what we market ourselves as.”